Telemedicine
Rural doctors in one of the world's poorest countries are going to be offered online medical centres in an attempt to help them provide better care for the sick.
A private company called Bangladesh Telemedicine Services (BTS) has come up with an ambitious project to set up telemedicine centres to help doctors identify diseases early on.
- [ict_of_bangladesh] Telemedicine centre launched
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FARIDPUR, Aug 11: A telemedicine centre, first of its kind in Bangladesh, was launched here today to provide distance medical treatment to patients, reports UNB.
Professor Dr Mohammad Yunus, a noted economist and MD of Grameen Bank and chairman of Grameen Telecom, inaugurated the centre set up at Faridpur Diabetic Hospital.
With the launch of the centre, a patient from the area can contact any specialist physician in Dhaka describing his health problems and collect prescription through the information superhighway by means of Internet.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Yunus said local patients, particularly poor ones, would be benefited much as they would be able to contact physicians in the capital through the centre.
"Any patient can also take medical suggestion from any foreign specialist physician soon," he told the function.
Presided over by Professor MA Samad, the function was also addressed by Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Nasir Uddin Khan and Civil Surgeon Dr SM Abul Khair Mia.
On the opening day, Basu Dev, 65, a resident of Muksudpur upazila in Gopalganj district, who has been suffering intestinal diseases along with diabetics, took prescription directly talking with noted gastric and liver-disease specialist Professor Dr AK Azad Khan in the capital.
The telemedicine centre has been set up under the initiative of the Diabetic Association of Bangladesh, Grameen Telecom, GrameenPhone, Diabetic Association of Faridpur and noted specialist physicians in Dhaka.
Any local patient can take prescription from specialist physicians in the capital through the centre by paying Tk 600 as fee.